


Blue

by indefensibleselfindulgence



Category: Neoscum (Podcast)
Genre: Character Study, Fluff, Gen, Hair Dyeing, Minor Angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-16
Updated: 2019-10-16
Packaged: 2020-12-17 02:16:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,182
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21046649
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/indefensibleselfindulgence/pseuds/indefensibleselfindulgence
Summary: “Dye my hair please.”





	Blue

**Author's Note:**

> its neoscum friday somewhere

She find him alone, sitting on the shitty motel bed.  
  
Finds him because he's two hours deep in HotSim, beating people in NeoGeoGuesser. Because he has to relax somehow. In literally any way.  
  
Tech and Dak went to go and try to fix Xanadu. Hardcore mode, as Dak called it, because they're all fresh out of money. Z thinks Dak is about to fuck someone for new yen in a restroom, because that seems like a Dak thing to do, but why take Tech with him? Anyway, he thought Pox was asleep on the bed next to him, trying to fix her new stab wounds or burn wounds or explosion wounds- they get hurt a lot.  
  
Her hand creeps up his leg like a little person, finger after finger until she makes it up his knee and gets tired waiting.  
  
“Z-Zenith-” She sounds tired. Miserably tired. “Ze-nith.”  
  
He swats at her hand, which maybe is a little mean. He just wants to show that he can hear her- even if he's about to lose the round. He grabs at blank air until catches her wrist again and brings it back to his knee, tapping on her a few times.  
  
“Mm-” And then she pulls her hand away from him and there's a depression the bed that makes him missclick- oh way closer. Sick. The bed shakes sometimes, her kicking her legs, but he gets through the last two rounds quick.  
  
His body shivers as he drops out of HotSim and then he's staring at Pox, sprawled out at the foot of the bed, pale blue hair brushing the floor.  
  
“Hey.”  
  
“Hey- Hi-” She blinks. “Doing important gaming stuff?”  
  
“Yeah. Why'd you wake up- I wasn't making noise right?”  
  
“No-”  
  
“Cause if I was-”  
  
“No- No.” She says decisively. “Dye my hair please.” And then she holds up a box before letting it drop on the bed beside her. Zenith reaches over for it. A blue box kit from what is probably the corner store on the only corner in the one block town they stopped in.  
  
“What's wrong with kool-aid hair?” He flips the box over a few times. Half of the instructions aren't even in English. His visual overlay tells him its Indonesian.  
  
He wonders if he ever served there.  
  
“Flies.” Pox rolls over until she's face down on the bed. “And it's fading.”  
  
“Did you steal this?”  
  
“Nah- Just stares at it long enough and then the store owner felt bad for me. And I pretended I was like- ten.” She gives that breathy laugh she does sometimes. “Elves age weird, did you know that?”  
  
“I picked up on it.”  
  
“You're smart.”  
  
“I try.” He reaches out and loosely runs his hand over her hair. It's unbelievably gross. “Why blue?”  
  
“It's cute when we match.”  
  
His hair has been blue for a while. He should probably get his roots done when gets to Los Angeles. If they every get to Los Angeles. God it's been so long since they left for LA.  
  
“Yeah.” He says. “Sure.”  
  
“Twins.” She cheers, maybe, but it's super muffled.  
  
“Come on.” The bathroom is gross too, but he basically signed up for that when he got in a truck with them. While he gets the box open she shuffles in behind him. Z turns around and almost drops the first tube. She always looks so tiny with out her coat. And are those actual burn scars? “You okay?”  
  
“Mmhm. Tired. Can't ask Tech to fix it yet, cause he gets all panicy- you know.”  
  
“I know.”  
  
“You're smart.”  
  
“We've established.”  
  
“Yeah.” She sits on the edge of a tub and he's almost surprised she's not kicking her legs. She's not that short, but really. “Do I wash my hair or-”  
  
“No. Just wait a little.”  
  
“I'm good at that. At waiting. I wait sooo much.” It's not mean so much as it is funny. “Ze-nith. Did you win?”  
  
“Obviously.”  
  
“Mm-yeah. Wish I could play with you. I'm not good at MMOs though.”  
  
“It was a geography game.” Do they have gloves? They should definitely have gloves, which basically means they definitely do not have gloves. He'll be fine, probably. “Put a towel around your shoulders so I don't turn you blue.”  
  
“It would be really good camouflage though.” He smiles and when she doesn't get up to get one, hands her the closest one under hand. “I could blend in with you and Tech at the same time.”  
  
“You're usually way more up close though.”  
  
“If you scribble some words, it's like I'm Dak's sister's kid for real.”  
  
“Tattoos aren't genetic.”  
  
“Not true.” He doesn't have foils and he doesn't have a brush so he might as well start slathering it on. He starts with the edges and Pox goes really still. It's super creepy actually, if she wasn't literally talking to him a second ago, he wouldn't be surprised if he was suddenly working on a corpse. No wonder she's so stealthy. “I went to school with kids who had their parents tattoos.”  
  
“That's creepy.” It sort of stings his hand. “We're they any good?”  
  
“Hmm.” She doesn't move but Zenith is sure there's an emotional head tilt in there somewhere. “One kid had love hearts under his eyes.”  
  
“Thats- Huh.”  
  
“I can't tell if that's actually shitty or not too.”  
  
They don't really talk that much until he's done, which is probably why Pox falls asleep up right.  
  
Elves, man.  
  
He could get another quick game in, but he decides to just stand in the bathroom until the timer on his overlay goes off. In theory, he's left alone with his thoughts which is something he's been trying to desperately on avoid lately, what with the whole death is eminent thing. In theory. But his mind is kind of blank.  
  
It's way easier to just stare at a wall, at Pox's head, at Dak's shirt that he left hanging on the shower rail, at literally anything.  
  
It's kind of zen, and maybe he's fucked and maybe he's disassociating, but he kind of gets why Tech has his mental breakdowns in bathrooms. He should be more supportive, when Tech gets back. Give him a hug or something.  
  
He counts down the last two minutes with the timer, and when the jingle of his alarm plays he shakes Pox's shoulder lightly.  
  
“Oh hi.” She says and smiles. “Am I blue yet?”  
  
“Wash this out and you will be.”  
  
“Sweet.”  
  
It's a good color on her, once it's done, and she hugs Zenith way to hard but he doesn't mind. He hears the hotel door unlock and Pox lets him go, rushes to show the other two her new hair and Zenith smiles.  
  
“Zenith is so talented!” She looks happier then she has in a while.  
  
“Of course he is.” Dak's grinning, so is Tech, and yeah, this was a good idea.  
  
And when they get clocked one state over for stealing from a corner store, and they have a whole ass gun fight that Dak almost dies in, he still thinks its a good idea.

**Author's Note:**

> please tell me you like it i need the validation
> 
> find me on[ tumblr ](http://iamalivenow.tumblr.com/) and [ twitter](https://twitter.com/licotain)


End file.
